


The Other Side of the Door

by TheLibranIniquity



Category: Primeval
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-29
Updated: 2014-12-29
Packaged: 2018-03-04 04:37:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2946488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLibranIniquity/pseuds/TheLibranIniquity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Tale as old as time. Boy meets girl; girl kisses boy only for boy to return through a time portal and claim that girl never existed and he has no idea who she is, was or wants to be.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Other Side of the Door

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [burnedyesterday](http://burnedyesterday.livejournal.com/) in the 2014 Denial Secret Santa, loosely using the prompt _Working together instead of against each other will give us a better chance_.

_Nick stands outside Claudia's front door. He's got a wild expression and if Claudia didn't know any better she'd think he'd been drinking. His blond hair is framed by the porch light and there is the sound of a car engine idling nearby._

_She waits for him to speak._

_“Th – this,” Nick says slowly, carefully sounding each syllable. He motions between himself and Claudia for added emphasis._

_“This isn't working.”_

o o o o o

_A few days earlier_  
The first thing Nick said when he came back from the Permian was: “Captain Ryan is dead.”

Claudia's relief at seeing him alive was cut short and she closed her eyes briefly. She'd come to like Ryan, despite how they'd met. When she looked up again Nick was staring at her. So was Helen, who must have just come through the anomaly.

Her first thought was the kiss and her breath caught slightly before realising now everyone was staring at her. Claudia gathered herself, started to smile and said -

Nick beat her to it. “Who the hell are you?”

That wasn't what Claudia had been expecting. Not at all. Everyone else seemed just as surprised as her; Abby was frowning, Connor's compass hung loosely in his hand and Lester was, well, as inscrutable as ever.

“I'm... me,” she said, feeling faintly stupid. “Who else would I be?”

This was clearly the wrong thing to say; Nick backed away from her, towards the anomaly, still hanging in the air as the backdrop to an increasingly surreal stage.

“Cutter,” Stephen said quietly. He glanced at Claudia but he stepped towards Nick. “What's going on?”

“You tell me!” Nick jabbed a finger at Claudia. “I don't know you, I -”

“Well,” Helen interrupted him. She looked uncomfortable (the best Claudia'd seen her look all day) even as she eyed Claudia like she was one of those future predators. “This is an unexpected turn of events.”

And what was that supposed to mean? Claudia frowned but before she could ask anything, Helen gave Nick a long impenetrable look then turned around and walked through the anomaly. No one tried to stop her.

The atmosphere in the clearing quickly became awkward and only broke when Lester's phone went off; a few moments later he announced to the team that a dinosaur had been spotted in a shopping centre.

o o o o o

Claudia tried her best to limit the chaos but she didn't really have the training for this. (Who did?) Things went about as well as she could hope for, really. She added firearms and public speaking to the mental list of things to be better at even while she and Abby hauled an unconscious raptor from a shoe shop to the anomaly site.

“I think this would be the part where Connor high fives everyone,” Abby commented with a wry smile. She cocked her head at Claudia. “Not your thing?”

Claudia shook her head. When it became clear that nothing else was going to come through the anomaly, they headed back to the mall area.

“That thing – with Cutter earlier,” Abby said quickly, “I'm sure he's just -”

“It's okay,” Claudia told her, “we don't have to talk about that now.”

Abby frowned, then nodded. “It'll sort itself out,” she said confidently.

Claudia had the feeling it wouldn't be anything close to that simple. Not in a world where dinosaur hunting was part of the job description and daft, irascible Scottish professors meant far more than they any business doing.

Damn.

They found Nick, Stephen and Connor talking animatedly in the electronics aisle of one of the department stores. Nick stopped talking as they approached, just glaring at Claudia like he had in the Forest of Dean that morning, and something in her gut twisted.

Double damn.

There was another raptor unconscious on the floor by Stephen's feet. “Connor nearly got me with the tranq,” he told Claudia, indicating the gun slung over his shoulder. “Missed – went through the display over there.” He pointed to where a dart was poking out of the forehead of some celebrity chef – it was a perfect head shot.

“I'll sort it out,” Claudia replied, and Stephen smiled his thanks.

Abby nudged Connor in the shoulder and with Stephen's help they began dragging the raptor out of the shop. Which just left Nick and Claudia. Standing there. Again.

She thought about just going with whatever Nick was playing at. Stick her hand out, introduce herself. Like a do-over, better than the first time. Less fun maybe, but more professional. No pricks trying to bore her to death while she watched her target.

“Hi,” she said.

Then Nick walked away, following in the direction Abby and the boys had gone.

Claudia sighed, and grabbed the cardboard chef. She could do this. She could do this and not take it personally.

She could.

o o o o o

It was, Claudia decided by her third glass of wine, a tale as old as time. Boy meets girl; girl kisses boy only for boy to return through a time portal and claim that girl never existed and he has no idea who she is, was or wants to be.

But even if what Nick was now saying was true, that the world had somehow changed, it didn't mean anything was broken, did it. Change meant different, and different didn't necessarily mean good or bad.

Different just was.

Too bad Nick Cutter didn't like different all that much.

o o o o o

After the shopping centre, things calmed down a little. Nick spent more time with Stephen, away from the Home Office (much to Lester's relief), which gave Claudia more time to spend with paperwork. Decorating her end of the open plan office allocated to the anomaly project was a wall of photographs from the Forest of Dean, showing the incumbent anomaly from all angles.

Claudia found herself staring at the board one morning. She'd started out wondering if Nick and Connor's increasingly technical theories about the anomalies held any merit, which reminded her she needed to finish negotiating with one of the insurance companies. But she couldn't stop thinking about Nick, who was quieter but no less insistent that Claudia hadn't existed before a few days ago.

Her memories of Doctor Who were fuzzy at best, but she thought she understood the notion that time travel could change historical events. What didn't make sense was how time travel could change almost nothing but the fact of her existence, assuming Nick hadn't just had a really bad knock on the head somewhere in the Permian.

There wasn't anything particularly special about her (it didn't matter what Beth from uni said, that thing with the tennis ball could have happened to anyone), and the way Claudia saw it no amount of metaphorical butterflies flapping their wings could change one person out of an entire world.

She stared at the Forest of Dean anomaly some more. Because – if a single thing could change, then it made sense that thing could change back, didn't it? All it would take was -

No. Claudia stopped herself, made herself turn away from the board and focus on something else.

That way madness lay.

o o o o o

It didn't matter in the end. Of course it didn't; when you were jumping from table to table above a smelly mist with prehistoric worms trying to suck your ankles off, you focused on the moment, not stupid things like time and space and whether a man you had feelings for had decided to accept your existence yet.

And it worked, right up until Nick and Stephen turned on the sprinklers to kill the worms and Claudia's boots started to soak from the inside out. She squelched all the way down to the reception desk where one of the middle management suits (Briscoe? Barnes? No – Bray) was practically squeaking at Nick and Stephen, both of whom were as drenched and dirty and post-adrenaline manic as Claudia felt.

“- your superiors, this is unacceptable -”

Claudia sighed, and nudged Nick out of the way. “Mr Bray, wasn't it?”

“I – yes,” the man said. “I demand to -”

“Claudia Brown, Home Office.” Claudia plastered her best Christmas-with-the-in-laws smile on her face and held her hand out. “I'm terribly sorry about all the commotion on your floors today. Rest assured the outbreak has been contained and my department will send cleaners out to handle any overflow.”

She nodded her head to Nick, watching her with his now blank expression, and Stephen, who looked considerably more amused. “My team are very skilled at what they do.”

“But -” Bray sputtered. “What outbreak?”

“Exactly,” Claudia smiled. “Now, about how you're going to handle this internally...”

o o o o o

_Claudia stretches out on the sofa, a box of chocolates in one hand and remote in the other. One of the local news bulletins mentioned the 'unexpected rodent outbreak' at a mid-level marketing firm but the story seems to be holding._

_She's about to change channels when the doorbell rings._

_Nick stands outside Claudia's front door. He's got a wild expression and if Claudia didn't know any better she'd think he'd been drinking. His blond hair is framed by the porch light and there is the sound of a car engine idling nearby._

_She waits for him to speak._

_“Th – this,” Nick says slowly, carefully sounding each syllable. He motions between himself and Claudia for added emphasis._

_“This isn't working.”_

_Dread builds up inside Claudia. “What do you mean?” she says as gently as she can manage._

_Nick takes a deep breath. “I don't know you. Before Thursday, you weren't a part of this team. That – that's my reality, and it's changed. I don't know why, or how, but you're here now. And...”_

_Claudia waits._

_“...I might have been wrong. About you,” Nick finishes in a rush._

_It's all Claudia can do not to punch the air, or deliver the most sarcastic comeback she can think of (and there are plenty). Instead she motions for him to come inside._

_He does._

_She offers him a chocolate on the way back through to the living room._

_He accepts._

_It's not how she imagined this moment, not within a million miles of what she hoped might happen. But it's real, and different didn't have to mean bad. There might not be any fireworks, at least not for a while, but there's a possibility. A chance._

_And Claudia Brown will take that._


End file.
